[RESOLVED] - Domain Name Stolen...A Horrible Story and a Warning...

Hi All. I've not been in here for a number of years, but a week ago I had my domain of 20 years (dustie.com) stolen and I have to tell the story. it looks like I'm out of luck here, and out a lot of money, but maybe my story can help prevent this happening to someone else. This happened at Godaddy, though I don't blame them, and i still have all of my domains with them, as well as my websites. I blame the no good slimy thief who stole my domain name!

Here's the story... First off, my name is Dustie, and I've owned Dustie.com since 1998.
Sometime in 2017 (I think) I decided to go ahead and list dustie.com as a premium domain for a high price. It being my name, I wasn't real keen on selling it, but, as they say, everything is for sale for the right price. I'd had someone offer me 5,000.00 for it, but after taxes (it would have put me in a higher tax bracket for the year) and commisison, it wasn't worth it wasn't worth it to sell it for that amount. However, I figured that if someone were willing to pay that for it, maybe someone would pay even more. So I listed it as a premium domain for 20,000.00. I seriously didn't think it would sell but it woudn't hurt to list it (or so I thought).

All was well, until a bit over a week ago. I had been out that evening and didn't get home till nearly 10:00 PM. It was 11:00 before I was able to get onto the computer. That's when I saw the 5 emails from Godaddy.... I'm sure you can imaging my reaction when I saw that, within 20 minutes, my domain name, dustie.com, which I have owned since 1998, sold and transferred for a mere 450.00? I was sick...simply sick. How could this happen! First off, I've never had a domain name sell and transfer inside of 21 minutes and then be paid for it a little over a day and a half later. That's unheard of!

Immediately after reading those 5 emails and realizing my domain name had sold for less then 5% of what I'd had it listed for on Premium Domains, I was online with Godaddy help. Though they were sympathetic, no one there could help. They said I'd have to wait till morning and call auctions help. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well and was on the phone as soon as they opened their office. Though I was on the phone for a good 30 or so minutes with them (a good part of that time on hold), I was ultimately told there was nothing they could do for me. My domain was bought, paid for, and transferred and that was that! (Oh, and this even though they found the price had been tampered with twice that same night, long before I got online). They said this had to be me because no one else had access to that account! That was proof to me that someone was in there messing with my account and screwed me over big time, but not to them.

So I've been sick all week...trying to forget that someone illegally reached into my pocket and stole a lot of money , as well as my NAME! Needless to say, even a week later, I'm just sick about the whole thing.

Today, on a lark I looked up dustie.com on godaddy and was sick all over again when I saw that it is now listed as a premium domain for 12,000.00 (by the person who stole it from me?). That's just wrong, in so many ways! How do I get over this? I want to know how this could have happened!!??

I am posting in here as a warning to you all, as well as wanting to go on record that this did happen, regardless that the guy at [email protected] said that dustie.com had always been listed at 450.00 and it was a legitimate sale! I know how to use GoDaddy. I'm a long time user and have over 50 domain names with GoDaddy, more the half listed as premium domains! Ever since Dustie.com was originally listed as a premium domain at 20,000.00 that was the price that showed up whenever I went to maintain my premium listings. It always stuck out like a sore thumb, because most my other domain names are listed below 1000.00. There is simply no way Dustie.com was ever listed for as little as 450.00. Even go daddy suggested a price of nearly $5,000 as a premium listing starting point for dustie.com.

Without a doubt, my godaddy account was hacked and my domain name of 20 years stolen from me and relisted for 27 times what they paid for it! That burns me to the core!!!

I'm sure that, since this happened to me it will surely happen again. If any of you hear about such a thing, could you please have them get in touch with me? If I can find others that this has happened to, maybe we can do something as a group?

In the meantime, if you have a valuable domain name on Godaddy Premium domains, then you might want to take screen shots of the listed prices. Also, I was told that if I had the original email when it was listed that would be proof that it was listed at 20,000.00. Alas, I did not have it...I had, not long ago, deleted emails that were more then a year and a half old. If you don't have emails for your most valuable domain names, then remove them from listing, then relist them to get a new email and save those emails just in case!!

And Thanks for listening to my very long rant!

Dustie
(was [email protected] for over 20 years...now I am [email protected] and my site is dustie.art ... cool name, but it's certainly not worth what I lost in dustie.com!)

I know it's on undeveloped.com as I found it in whois. Interesting that it's listed here in someone's sig. Nothing I can do about it though. Godaddy calls it a legitimate transaction, which simply makes me ill...

Wow...WHAT'S THIS ABOUT It WAS GODADDY EXPIRED??? IT'S ALWAYS BEEN SET TO AUTO RENEW AND IT WAS GOOD THROUGH 2019. I DO HAVE THAT RENEWAL RECEIPT. IT WAS STOLEN A WEEK AGO FOR THE NOTHING SUM OF 450.00 WHEN IT WAS LISTED AT 20,000.00!

Here's the 1st Godaddy Email ...there were four more inside of 20 minutes, the last saying the domain name has successfully transferred. Have you ever heard of a domain name selling and transferring within 20 minutes. Then I got paid a day and a half later! Super Speed this theft!

No, I don't have a bulk price point and all my other premium domain prices are still the same. I have put the 2 step lock on my account now. Didn't know that would stop premium domains from being sold though.

MadMax...I've sold about 5 domains for good money at GoDaddy. I'm not blaming them...they were hacked right along with me. I blame the son of a (whatever) thief who stole my name and had it up for sale the very next morning!

Best practice advice to protect yourself
- Having a dedicated desktop / laptop solely for domaining.
- Don't use domaining laptop browser any unknown websites. If you want to google something, use another computer instead.

Kam, never even dawned on me it might have been my computer that got hacked and then allowed them to get into my account and change the pricing. Wow...what a thought! How could I possibly know if this is what happened??

Bohdan... JB Lion shared that your referrence had dustie.com listed as a Godaddy Expired Domain first listed 1999. But no sooner after Lion shared that, it was gone! They took it off! The name is still there but not the stuff about it being a snatched up godaddy expired domain...because that was just an out and out lie.

Bohdan... JB Lion shared that your referrence had dustie.com listed as a Godaddy Expired Domain first listed 1999. But no sooner after Lion shared that, it was gone! They took it off! The name is still there but not the stuff about it being a snatched up godaddy expired domain...because that was just an out and out lie.

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What exactly are you talking about?

I posted 3 links. To current owner NP page, Undeveloped page and this page:

I just went and looked and the part about it being first registered in 1999 and that it being a GoDaddy Expired 8/19 was in his first post...I was looking at further posts and thought he's removed all that info cause he saw us talking about this! i was thinking he was saying that the domain was expired and that's how he picked it up when what he's actually saying is it expireson 8/19. My bad on that one.

I went to the link you posted that took me to the referrence to dustie.com under that guy's , and it said right beside dustie.com, domain expired on Godaddy, listed since 1999. Then I came back and posted and then looked again and the part about it being expired was removed.

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I don't remember what it said, just did a search and found that post but when somebody edits a post it'll say Last edited: time

In that thread only the first post was edited and it says:
Last edited: Friday at 10:18 AM, don't see any current edits

I don't think he's even online now.

Maybe he can help fill in the blanks so you guys can figure out what happened.

I just went and looked and the part about it being first registered in 1999 and that it being a GoDaddy Expired 8/19 was in his first post...I was looking at further posts and thought he's removed all that info cause he saw us talking about this! i was thinking he was saying that the domain was expired and that's how he picked it up when what he's actually saying is it expireson 8/19. My bad on that one.

I've no doubt now who the bad guy is now. So sad there's nothing that can be done about it though. All I can say is What Goes Around, Comes Around...

Steal is right, cause the price was manipulated and the domain was STOLEN!

Just wish I hadn't had to learn the lesson on the domain that is my name!

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Do you have Afternic account? Have you listed your domain on Afternic?
You should ask them whether the price change is happened on Afternic or Godaddy.
You should also ask them for the log. When did the price change happened, IP address login history, etc.

Kan, I don't have an Afternic account. It was on GoDaddy Premium Domain. I was a half hour on the phone with auctions and the guy I talked to put me on hold for a long time then came back and said the log shows that dustie.com had always been listed at 450.00, which is just crazy. First off, if that had been the case, it would have sold a lot sooner then last week at that price. Plus there's the fact that I've been looking at the premium listing price of 20,000.00 above dustie.com for the last year whenever I was managing my domains.

The tech also told me that just after the sale it shows the price went from to 4800.00 and then to 14095.00 and he said that was odd and that it had to be me, or someone using my account who did it.

Do you have Afternic account? Have you listed your domain on Afternic?
You should ask them whether the price change is happened on Afternic or Godaddy.
You should also ask them for the log. When did the price change happened, IP address login history, etc.

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Yes they have those logs and it would probably show price change followed by immediate sale, done from IP address that could not be yours.